Afterthoughts
by Lana Atkins
Summary: Ranma and Akane walk to school the morning after their match with Mikado and Azusa. Ranma thinks about yesterday's events and about Akane.


**Afterthoughts**

**By Lana Atkins**

**--**

It was the morning after the skating rink match against Mikado Sanzenin and Azusa Shiratori, and Ranma and Akane were walking to school as usual, as if nothing had happened the day before.

Most of Ranma's injuries, caused by the 'Couple Cleaver', were put right with a quick visit to the Ono Chiropractice. Ranma claimed he was fine and said he'd been damaged worse before. Akane, in turn, maintained that she could handle her own minor cuts and bruises. The two insisted that they were perfectly well enough to return to Furinkan High, although this was more of a pride issue than any real enthusiasm for school. So in the end, against Kasumi's gentle protests to stay at home for the day, they went.

They took their own sweet time that morning, being early for once. Ranma resumed his usual position on the old iron fence, while Akane walked at his side on the ground. In the cheerful, dew-saturated morning air, Ranma's mind wandered. The current subject of contemplation happened to be Ryoga, who had taken to trailing after Akane (of course, in his 'cute, widdle pig' form) to school every morning, but was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

In fact, Ranma hadn't seen any sign of Ryoga since their little match after the defeat of the ' Golden Pair'. He assumed that he'd be away in some foreign part of Japan right now, mulling over his loss and muttering about how close he'd come to taking his lovely Akane from the 'vile cretin' that was himself. He couldn't believe the bandanna-ed boy, whom he had thought considerably honourable, had resorted to such dirty tactics to win the match.

Then again, he guessed that love was blind that way, as little as he knew about it. People did the craziest things when they were in love, he'd heard.

_Hmph. _

But what would he know about love anyway? He was a martial artist. He didn't have time for such trivial matters.

Distracted for a moment, he glanced at the girl below him from his view on the fence. Her head was bent down, but Ranma noticed the tint of pink in her cheeks; even though her eyes were focused on the ground as she walked, he could see that she was engrossed in deep thought over something, and it was causing her embarrassment.

To his horror, he felt his own face grow warm, and knew instantly that he was blushing too. He turned in the other direction; lips pursed, brows furrowed.

The whole thing had started when they'd been at the local skating rink to spend the day, Akane with her friends and the rink, Ranma and his friends at the restaurant next to it. Then, Akane came bursting in, stopping Ranma in mid-insult, with tears streaming down her face. He'd almost had a heart attack then; the thought that he'd been the one to put them there creeping into his mind. Then he learned the reason she'd been crying— her precious piece of pork, P-Chan, had gone missing.

Ranma wasn't too worried about Pig-Boy, knowing that he was bound to show up sooner or later. He always did. But he hadn't expected _how_ soon. Barely a minute after she'd told him, a pretty girl came bounding through the door carrying the porkster in her arms.

Of course, the two girls had started fighting about it; the pretty girl, Azusa, calling Ryoga her 'Charlotte', Akane insisting that the little nuisance was her pet, P-Chan.

The Mikado stepped in.

Ranma unconsciously clenched a fist tightly, digging his nails into his palm as if to assuage some of the fury that raged inside when he thought about the skater. Ranma was, usually, a very forgiving person; even with his rivals, and was usually willing to forgive and forget if an apology was made.

But.. what _he'd _done.. was beyond forgiveness.

He shook the thought off. He had to.

What it had all come down to in the end was a rage-induced challenge from Azusa, which Akane had accepted, as she always did when it came to her pride as a martial artist. Ranma stood quietly aside and let Akane handle her own, although he didn't agree with it.

He scoffed quietly, breaking from the train of memories for a second. The stupid tomboy. Always butting in and getting into messes too big for her to handle. He'd never known Akane to back away from _any_ challenge, no matter how hard or impossible it seemed.

But.. aside from thinking that it could be kind of reckless at times.. she sort of reminded him of himself. She had the kind of pride he himself possessed. And he had to admit.. that pride in her was kind of awesome. Maybe even a little attractive.

He started suddenly.

_What the hell're you thinking?_ He told his brain._ I ain't attracted to nobody! And Akane? Attractive? HUH!_

He glanced down at her pretty dark blue-black head and felt the unpleasant heat of a blush again. He sighed.

Akane. What in the hell kind of chance did he have with her anyway? She probably hated him. And on top of that, he happened to be a sex-changing freak with a knack for getting her in trouble.

Who'd want _him_?

Not Akane, surely. He did tease her and called her uncute - but the truth was that he really thought she was - well, not uncute. Pretty even.

Not that he liked her or anything.

He closed his eyes with his nose in the air, determined to think no more about the subject. The memories came rushing back, and to his utter dismay, **that **particular encounter rushed back with the rest.

The 'encounter' in question happened the day after the run-in, and he remembered it (unfortunately) as clearly as ever. It still lurked at the back of his mind whenever he wasn't thinking about it (or trying not to), and his stomach lurched unpleasantly every time he did.

He and Akane had been at the rink again to brush up on his skating skills for the match— well, his _non-existent_ skating skills. He'd been in his girl form then, figuring it would be less embarrassing to be taught by a girl as a cute red-head rather than his normal manly self.

That was a big mistake, as it turned out.

The Golden Pair showed up. Azusa distracted Akane, who let go of his hands; sending him flying backwards into the arms of none other than Mikado Sanzenin. Of course, he couldn't have known about Ranma's curse, and quickly labeled him as another pretty girl to be wooed.

And the jerk had kissed him.

Friggin' _kissed_ him.

Ranma felt a bad taste in his mouth. No matter how much he'd tried to wash off the feeling of Mikado's lips against his, he could still feel it lingering, like an awful stench that just wouldn't go away. The more he tried not to think about it, to push it from his mind.. the memory of that horrible half-second surfaced, as strong as before, playing over and over again in his mind to the point he wished he could somehow bang it out of his head. Ranma shuddered, remembering all the nightmares he'd had for the past few nights since it happened, each one more ridiculous and disgusting than the last, and he cursed the skater's name for putting him through such torment.

He took solace in the fact that he'd gotten the playboy back for it, in any case.

"Feh. Idiot didn't stand a chance," he retorted smugly under his breath, thinking of how he'd wiped the floor, or rather, the ice, with his rival in the rink the day before.

"Did you say something?" asked Akane, looking up at him for the first time since they'd started their walk to school.

"Huh? Oh. Er— I didn't say nothin'," he said quickly.

"Oh," Akane said quietly. "Um. Ranma?"

"What?"

"I want to talk about yesterday."

"You mean what happened at the rink?"

"Are you really that dumb or are you being stupid on purpose?" asked Akane irritably. "Of course I'm talking about the rink."

Ranma frowned. "Well don't get your panties in a bunch, I was just askin'.."

He missed a rather large stone by two inches.

"What didja do that for, ya uncute tomboy?!" Ranma yelled, still trying to regain his balance on the fence he'd so nearly fallen from.

"I don't appreciate you talking about my panties, pervert." Akane angrily replied.

"You're always gettin' mad for no reason. Why can'cha just be nice to me for once?" He crossed his arms obstinately, and closed his eyes, half-prepared for a bashing.

He waited a few seconds, and when the bashing didn't come, he glanced down at his fiancée. She was staring at the ground again.

"I'm sorry, Ranma."

She said it so softly that he wasn't sure whether she'd actually said it or not. He gaped.

"H-huh?"

She lifted her head to look at him. "I'm sorry. That was stupid. I.. I shouldn't have gotten so mad over nothing. It's just - I've a lot of stuff on my mind right now. I didn't mean to snap."

Ranma looked at her for a long while. She seemed almost concerned.. concerned that he might be angry with her?

Had aliens abducted his fiancée? No. He must have misheard. Akane didn't apologize. It couldn't be..

But she did. _Weird._

He could see Akane growing uncomfortable under his stare, and he quickly snapped out of his train of thought.

"Er— it's okay, Akane. You're, uh, forgiven." He finally answered.

Akane smiled at him, looking somewhat relieved that their petty spat was over with. "I'm glad."

Ranma's heart melted.

They continued their walk in silence for awhile before he remembered her question."So, uh, what was it that you wanted to ask about yesterday?"

Akane hesitated. Then she answered, "What were you and Ryoga fighting over after I left the rink?"

Ranma felt himself go cold. How could he tell her that they'd been trying to win the right to love her—as though she were some kind of prize?

That's right. He couldn't.

"It was a man-to-man fight. The reason's, er, kind of a secret."

Akane looked at him suspiciously for a minute, and he looked away uncomfortably. He sighed in relief when she didn't press the topic.

"Oh. Um, okay. Well— then I guess there's just one more thing."

He turned his head to look at her. "What's that?"

Akane bent her head down again, the blush in her cheeks spreading. She fiddled with the clasp of her bag.

"I— j-just wanted to know— if you really meant what you said."

Ranma blinked. "What I said..?"

She turned further away. "At the rink—when Mikado tried to kiss me again."

His mind immediately flashed back to when he'd narrowly pulled his fiancée from the clutches of the perverted pretty-boy.

"_Akane is MY fiancée,"_ he'd almost shouted. _"You touch her and I'll kill you!"_

At the time it didn't really matter how many people were watching. All he knew was that he couldn't let Mikado keep that stupid vow he'd made in the boy's dressing room. He wouldn't just step aside and let him.. _kiss_ her.

When he saw the jerk touching Akane.. it ignited fires in him he'd never thought he could feel. Akane was _HIS_ fiancée. And if anyone got to touch her, it should have been h— w-well, anyway, there was no way he'd let any Tom, Dick or Mikado come within ten feet of her, not if he could help it. If he'd laid a lip on her - well, he was a lot better off in the ICU he was in now, in any case.

"Oh," he said stupidly.

A moment of awkward silence passed between them.

"Well, did you or didn't you?" asked Akane, her voice slightly raised.

"Well.. I, uh - I - um," he stuttered, wiping the beads of sweat starting to form on his upper lip away with a quick, frustrated swerve of his hand. His mind hadn't yet processed an answer in which to give her, and he could tell she was growing more impatient and pissed off by the second with his incoherent blabbering.

"I see." Akane muttered finally, walking ahead of him.

"Aw, Akane, don't be like that—"

"Oh, no, Ranma, it's okay.." The short-haired girl turned away from him so he couldn't see her face. "I knew you couldn't have meant it. You just did it to keep Mikado off my back, didn't you? It's perfectly fine. You don't like me and I don't like you and that's how it's going to be forever, right? Why would an uncute brick of macho chick like me care? I don't have feelings."

Ranma could hear her voice break and he felt his heart crack as well. He'd done it again. But he just couldn't tell her— not to her face anyway, not yet.. he just wasn't ready..

He sighed, his eyes on his scuffling feet on the fence.

_Oh Akane. I __**did**__ mean it._

Akane stopped in her tracks.

He halted as well and stared at her, puzzled. If they kept stopping like this, they'd be la—

"Really Ranma?"

He jumped, startled. He stared into two hopeful brown eyes. She couldn't have heard... It just wasn't possible..

"Really Ranma what?" he said cautiously.

"So you did mean it?"

_God, could those beautiful eyes get any bigger? Eep! What am I _saying_?! But she heard me. How could she have heard me? She couldn't have. I was thinkin' it. Or was I? Oh, God, don't tell me I actually said it __**OUT LOUD**__!_

She was staring at his openly panicked face, the hopeful expression beginning to die away once again. He didn't think he could take seeing that happen.

"Yeah, I meant it." He answered. Ranma blushed as he said the words, glanced at the ground bashfully, and looked over her face for a reaction.

Akane kept quiet and resumed the walk. Her cheeks were pinker than before, and she smiled slowly, in a somewhat contented fashion.

"Thank you for doing that, Ranma. I appreciate it."

Ranma scoffed, his mouth shooting off now as if on reflex. "Heh. You think I'd ever let a creep like Mikado get his hands all over you? If anyone gets to touch you, it's gonna be me."

His hands instantly snapped upwards, as he realized what he'd just blurted.

_nonononoNONONONONONOIDIDNOTJUSTSAYTHAT! OH GODS WHAT THE __**HELL**__ IS WRONG WITH ME TODAY?! Why'd I _say_ that? Why, why, why, why, why? You moron! You just had to ruin it! She couldn't have missed that. You're in for it now. YOU ARE IN FOR IT NOW, BUDDY. She is gonna make you one with the ground, she is gonna maim you for life, she is gonna.._

"You can be really sweet when you want to be, you know."

Ranma's eyes flew open.

"Wha..?"

Akane smiled at him, the way only Akane could.

"I said you can be really sweet when you want to be."

They both blushed again. Boy and girl stood across from each other, him on the fence and her on the ground, staring at their feet.

" Hey.. Ranma?" Akane said after a while.

"What is this, 20 Questions?" he asked, looking a little frazzled.

"No, no more questions. It's just—I wanted you to know that it really didn't bother me that he kissed you. Mikado, I mean. I know-- it couldn't have been easy for you either, and it's not like you wanted it to happen. I know it wasn't your fault, and.. well, you've got nothing to be ashamed of. So.. just let it go."

Ranma looked disgusted. "Nothing to be ashamed of? Just _let it go?_"

"Sorry," she said awkwardly. "I only wanted—"

"Look, Akane," he said curtly. " I know you're trying to help and all that, and I'm grateful, really, I am. But - I was kissed by a _guy_. I've tried to put it out of my mind, done what everybody told me to.. I've tried sleeping it off, burying myself in training.. nothing worked. I just can't get over it, okay? Because nothing's going to take that back. And no matter what I do, I can't seem to forget the feeling of his ki— Ugh. Anyway, thanks for caring."

Ranma turned away, wincing at how vulnerable he sounded, and the words he'd just admitted to Akane - to himself. It wasn't a great feeling.

Akane looked over Ranma's subdued face, feeling sorry for him. She knew if it had been her in Ranma's shoes, she'd have been furious, disturbed, helpless; confused.. maybe even a little sad that her first kiss was shared with someone she didn't love..

Akane remained in silent thought for another second. Then she said, "Ranma, come down here for a minute."

"What for?"

"Just do it, dummy."

The pig-tailed boy frowned at the insult, but obeyed nonetheless. He walked up to her.

"Is there a reason for this? Like, a real reason?" he asked.

Akane didn't answer. She instead pulled him right in front of her, raised her right arm, and put her sleeve over Ranma's mouth.

And rubbed. HARD.

"WHAT THE H - ?! That _STINGS_!" he cried in protest, drawing back and staring down at her incredulously as if she'd gone mad.

"There," she said triumphantly, smiling. "I've wiped off all traces of Mikado's kiss."

"But that's not gonna do any go—"

Akane silenced him by giving him a quick peck on the lips.

His eyes shot up.

The kiss didn't last more than a second, but Ranma could taste her, feel the light pressure of her lips on his, and it was a feeling he didn't want to go away.

"So," she said, looking a little flushed, after she had pulled back. "Can you feel his kiss anymore?"

Ranma was shocked for the first few seconds, but then it registered that there was another question for him to answer, so he assessed it thoughtfully.

He couldn't feel Mikado's kiss anymore.

All he _could_ feel—was Akane's.

"N-no." he answered breathlessly.

Akane smiled another gorgeous smile at him. "Consider us even now."

She left him standing there, picked up her satchel, and started skipping in the direction of school once again.

Ranma stood there for a good minute before picking up his own satchel and running after her. He brought a quivering hand to his lips, trying to pretend that her lips were there again.

Then, in spite of himself, he smiled for the first time that day. And thought that maybe, sometime in the future, he could give this whole love business a try.

A/N:

It only took me a couple of days to finish this fanfic (though it required a lot of editing in the days that followed) The idea popped into my head after reading, obviously, the fight between Ranma and Akane, Mikado and Azusa. I really love that little episode.

I think it's really cute the way Ranma's always so protective over Akane :) And I also happen to think that Akane does have a cheeky side. Doesn't everybody?

Oh, just a note. This is sort of a slightly alternate-universe fanfic. As MZephyr very kindly pointed out, the morning after the skating incident is the morning Akane found Shampoo in Ranma's bed -_- Also in this fanfic the whole skating arc happens later in the story when Akane's able to express her feelings more directly. The same goes for Ranma.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thanks for reading and please review, if you don't mind. :)

Lana Atkins


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